


but we're still tugging on each other

by orphan_account



Category: RWBY
Genre: Angst, Drabble, F/F, Post-Volume 3 (RWBY), Pre-Volume 4 (RWBY), Rumors
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-06
Updated: 2017-09-06
Packaged: 2018-12-24 16:38:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12016770
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Sienna Khan cites that night as a victory for all Faunus, but Ilia is only inclined to agree until she learns that Blake Belladonna was sighted at the fall of Beacon.





	but we're still tugging on each other

**Author's Note:**

> this is sort of a companion to [in a soft crux with our palms facing up](http://archiveofourown.org/works/12003438).
> 
> sorry for any typos.
> 
> title from [never gonna change by broods](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vb9ndwFFGIE).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s just after dawn when Ilia hears that Beacon has fallen. Word spreads fast: following the event, recruitment rallies become more frequent and are attracting more Faunus. Tension (the looming threat of an all-out war, some say) is bleeding into the ranks of White Fang members, civilians, and humankind alike. Sienna Khan cites that night as a victory for all Faunus, but Ilia is only inclined to agree until she learns that Blake Belladonna was sighted at the fall of Beacon.

She manages to excuse herself from the war tent just before her heart threatens to burst in her chest. Her insides twist around each other—and her skin is swirling red, then green, then blue, then yellow. Swallowing nothing but air, she puts a hand on her chest, attempting to calm herself down.

After all this time, it’s difficult to believe, but, as it turns out, it’s only the first of the reports to come. Ilia overhears each and every one of them as days begin to bleed into weeks again.

A seasoned member of the White Fang mentions that Blake was sighted fighting against the White Fang. A fresh-faced recruit says Blake had joined Beacon in order to become a huntress. Another recruit tells Ilia that Blake and Adam had a confrontation. It takes three more variations of that story for her to discover that some think he tried to—and nearly did—kill her. A courier stationed just outside of Vale swears that the last thing anyone heard about the cat Faunus was that she was sighted as she was fleeing Beacon.

Variations of those things filter through each branch of the White Fang, all of them somehow managing to find their way to Ilia and her aching heart. Blow after blow, Ilia feels like she’s going to have the wind knocked out of her every time. She’s afraid to hear the rumor she hasn’t heard yet—that Blake met her end somewhere along the way after leaving Beacon. In the organization, there are some who would call for her death in retribution for her betrayal; there are those who consider her misguided and misled by humankind; there are the select few who vocalize their hope that Blake made it out alright if it means she came to her senses—regardless of which side of the fight she’s on—and Ilia knows she’s alone in the fact that she hopes every day and every night that Blake is somewhere safe, far away from the violence and the fighting and the danger, even if she doesn’t come back.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
